Health visitor told nursery about a private medical condition I have??? not happy

[nowtheretwo]

Hi there,
At nursery today one of the staff said hows your *** condition? I was taken aback and ask how did you know about that, she just said well your childs health visitor mentioned you have it.

Is that not a breach of Data protection? I have never even told my health visitor about this before, guess she got access to my medical records.

Definitely complain. Totally out of order. Even if for instance your condition was that you are extremely depressed, and even if the reason for sharing is to help you or protect your child, you still should have been asked.

are you saying your health visitor has accessed your medical record and then contacted your child's nursery ? I don't understand why would the health visitor even be in contact t with your child's nursery ? Have you been getting extra support from health visitor? I work in a surgery the health visitors are based somewhere else but use same computer system so can write notes e.g. 2 year check so the medical notes are updated, I suppose they could record stuff in your record if relevant e.g. suffering from post natal depression they would probably record that but they certainly shouldnt be sharing that with nursery staff it sounds very odd. Basically say when a health care professional shares information they are only meant to share what's relevant so for example if the doctor refers you for a hip replacement they will share with the hospital what is relevant so you have a heart condition would be the fact you had a sti a few years ago wouldn't be. I would firstly contact pals to discuss with them. The only thing I will say is if you have social service involvement they do have meetings with health visitor and sometimes nursery / school attend could it have been mentioned in something like this ? sorry if totally off mark just thought it could be how it had happened

If it’s a child protection or safeguarding issue you wouldn’t have a case. I’m not sure about if not if it is relevant to your child, but if it is you would have told them yourself, wouldn’t you?

I'm obviously not clinical but we do lots of yearly training on this and I do believe they have to have your consent to share. But again contact Pals and they will be able to give you lots of adv ice and help also ring the practice manager they will tell you the health visitors manager and then complain to them

GDPR rules mean that access to sensitive information (medical information is in this special category of personal information ) should be restricted only to those people with a legitimate need for it.

HV does not have a right to view your notes. Your GP does not have the right to disclose any information about you unless it specifically impacts your child's welfare.

Hv definitely doesn't have the right to disclose any of your medical information to the nursery unless there is a legitimate need for nursery to know, as pertains to the welfare of your child.

Next steps.

1. Complain to your doctor's surgery that you believe the security of your notes have been breeched as X person at Y nursery approached on Z date and said "blah".

1. Complain to the supervisor of HV in your area. If you don't know who that is, phone your local baby clinic (check your child's red book) to get their details.

1. Speak to the manager of your nursery. The staff member who spoke to you unsolicited should not have done so. Ask for reassurance that this won't happen again and that it won't influence the care this nursery will give your child.

Get as much of the above in writing if possible. This may mean you need to call first and then follow up with an email.

There are deadlines that each company will need to stick to. If they don't tell you what these are (they should) press them to confirm.

You need to go through each company's complaints procedure first but if you're not happy with the responses then you can take it further with the ICO.

Best of luck!

We are not in a safeguarding or child in child protection order or social services involvement anything, not that I know of.

Maybe the HV could say that she has a safeguarding concern so wants to access my health records and feels its a safeguarding issue so needs to inform the Nursery of my medical condition which as you said if she thinks that then I wouldnt have a case.

Sleephead1 who are pals?

I did have a few health issues post birth with DC2 & 3 that did affect my mobility considerably and had some extra support from my HV and was asked if they could disclose x,y & z and declined but said they could mention I do have a medical issue that complicates daily life sometimes but not the specifics and she agreed but I had to sign her notes and was then sent a copy of my own.

As far as I believe they can not disclose to anyone unless it's a safeguarding issue, but they still tell you if they are going to inform someone/other agencies, it's supposed to be transparent.

I would want this investigated because she shouldn't have been able to view your GP records either, let alone disclose the information to other people.

HV does not have a right to view your notes. Your GP does not have the right to disclose any information about you unless it specifically impacts your child's welfare.

Guess the HV could argue my medical condition specifically impacts my child's welfare and get around data protection that ways.

Hv definitely doesn't have the right to disclose any of your medical information to the nursery unless there is a legitimate need for nursery to know, as pertains to the welfare of your child.

Guess the HV could argue my medical condition means nursery have a legitimate need to know.

I dont agree at all my medical condition has any impact on my child at all though.

I never understand these HV did xyz threads, i saw mine twice when dcs were newborn then nothing again.. why would your HV still be involved to the degree that they are speaking to a nursery?

I would expect hv to ask you if they could share the info.

It's not the same situation but I've worked with people with mental health problems.

I would always discuss sharing any health info with my client before doing so. Is the hv from the NHS I assume? Contact pals or the clinical commissioning group. Or call the department and ask for her manager.

I’d definitely query it with PALS, and take it the full road if she was wrong. If it was wrong that’s a hell of a breach of confidence.

it's the patient advice and liasion service they can give advice and support your complaint. I'm sorry to ask about social services it's just I know they do share safe guarding concerns. I certainly don't believe the health visitor should have been reading your notes even if she did have to record something that should of been all she did but honestly I'm not sure if they are meant to do this or should speak to gp then the gp can record in notes of needed I would ask that question at your practice. Someone clinical might be able to advice better as I'm only admin and we would obviously never have any reason to be involved in this and the training we do is more based around out jobs with a little bit extra info. I'm sure Pals will help and be able to answer more questions for you

You keep saying HV will probably claim safeguarding.

I think this is a case where you need answers to questions before taking further action.

Firstly I'll ask you if you have a HV when your child pre school age because of your medical problem or because that's the norm in your area? (Not here so genuine question).

Did the nursery need to ask about your condition or was it done in a way that could be translated as enquiringly after some gossip?

How did the HV access your medical notes and why?

How did the conversation between the HV and nursery come about and why? Which goes back to is it the norm for HV to be involved in children care and education?

These are separate issues you can politely ask the various people via email (paper trail!).

Oh when you have the answers can you decide to complain that
A) you don't feel they acted in a necessary way sharing the information or worst case
B) they breached data protection by sharing

There is always a record of who has accessed your medical record, your GP surgery will be able to see whether the health visitor did.

I had a similar situation where someone I knew came up to me in the street and congratulated me on being pregnant, but nobody knew, only DP so it had to have come from someone in my GP surgery. 5 days earlier I'd had an MC so I was pretty upset. The lady was friends with my GP receptionist, I went in and made a complaint and the audit trail on my records showed the receptionist had accessed them to process my pregnancy test results.

My GP was not happy and I think the receptionist was given a formal warning.

Sounds like you definitely need to ask more questions and then decide what to do next. But you do need answers and you have a right to them . Good luck,it can be a mine field.

@YeTalkShiteHen

Not on hold. The Supreme Court quashed the data sharing aspect of the legislation as it breached the right to privacy. However, many LAs had already trained their staff as the Act was originally framed.

The Named Person has gone ahead and is implemented. They are no longer allowed to share data though. Some post holders may be unaware of this.

Ah ok I didn’t realise, thanks for explaining,

No safeguarding concerns = no argument.

You need to make those complaints official and follow each company's complaints procedure.

1. GP surgery
2. HV supervisor
3. Nursery

If you're not happy

1. ICO

Could it be that you have agreed to information sharing at some point without realising it eg at a midwife or early health visitor appointment?

The health visitor will have had a handover of relevant health information from the midwife- was this medical condition mentioned antenatally?

If it is a moderate-severe mental health issue it may have given cause for a wellbeing concern which was the criteria for info sharing under names person as it was. If someone has been trained as it was and not been told to pause implementation it is likely that quite a few confidentiality breeches have taken place.

It is a confidentiality issue rather than a data protection one.

Why don’t you just ask your health visitor? Do you not have a good relationship?

Thanks, our HV is not very nice I dont think and certainly dont think so after she did this. I know if I ask the HV she wont give me a straight answer.

I dont know, maybe its just easier if I just leave it :( I for sure am going to ask my GP who has accessed my records though.

Maybe something I have unknowingly agreed to at some point in the past has allowed the HV to do this.
Just a big shock that 1) my health visitor accessed my GP records and b) hearing it first from the Nursery.

Can you imagine going to pick your child up from nursery one day and the depty manager says to you (for example) "hows your chrone disease? I understand if you cant make it to the nursery right on time if you have to come down fast, your HV told me".

My understanding was the only people who knew were my immediate family and my GP. NEVER ever mentioned to anyone connected to my child ie HV etc etc.

Just noticed this thread:

www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/being-mum-794/new-mums-262/1450934-health-visitor-access-my-medical-records.html

Post 14 which says HV are allowed to access your GP records in Scotland without any consent or breaching any Confidentiality.

Maybe start asking questions at the nursery first if you feel more comfortable with them. How the conversation came about,why etc. What do they have on your child's record?
Then move on to the GP and how exactly the midwife accessed this information.

Guess I have my answer, which is in Scotland HV can access your Medical records without consent or breaching any confidentiality.

However, not sure what regulation there is that HV can then disclose that information to the nursery. But I am sure there is one. Joke! Whats the point in having confidentiality regulations..ohh to protect it from 3 parties like phone companies etc etc....like they would want it anyhow.

Yes but even if she can access your records what you can and really need to establish is why she passed it onto nursery and why nursery felt the need to bring it up.

Were the conversations relevant and necessary to your child?